


the ghost in you (she don't fade)

by Iambic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Futurefic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-04
Updated: 2011-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-14 09:47:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iambic/pseuds/Iambic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which there is Quidditch, de-qnoming, prying family, and Teddy Lupin, and Charlie's life goes on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the ghost in you (she don't fade)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Harry Potter Non-Canon-Ships Comment Ficathon](http://anythingbutgrey.livejournal.com/774727.html)

It's a point of pride for him; _Uncle Charlie is my favourite._ Teddy always grins wide like a shark when Charlie walks into the room, and changes his hair blazing red, sprouts freckles. _Did I hatch out of an egg like a dragon?_ he asked once, on Charlie's shoulders as they cavorted around the yard, chasing after a wheezing Percy. _Can I go with you to the dragon park?_

One game of Quidditch later, in which Harry's team trounced Charlie's but Teddy scored every shot he took, they're all sitting on the steps while George teaches Teddy the finer points of de-gnoming the garden. Hermione leans her head on Ron's shoulder; Harry's on the grass, leaning against their combined legs. The sun has begun to go down, and the air smells of summer and the beginnings of dinner. Somewhere inside the house, a radio turns on, and the static quickly smooths to the rise-and-fall cadence of a news announcer.

"You know, you're the only unattached soul in the house," Percy comments from his perch by the door. "Unless you're having clandestine affairs as well."

Teddy lets loose a gnome with a wild shout, and the small, bulbous figure goes flying off into the tall grass. "Not really time to date when I'm split between here and Romania."

Percy snorts. "People have made such a situation work in the past. Bill, for instance. And now look at him."

"He's spawning," says Ron with a tone of joking disgust.

"All the more reason for me not to."

He'd have taken Teddy in at the drop of a hat, and almost offered to that awful night after the battle, when Harry stared down at the baby with bewilderment in his eyes and stammered he couldn't do this, not at his age, what were Remus and Tonks thinking. Charlie saw the bent of that brow and the blue of that hair and wanted him immediately. But babies and dragons don't mix. Much in the same way that families and wars clash, in fact. _Neither can live while the other survives_.

Teddy looks more like Remus, though with aquamarine hair and a reckless smile no Lupin could possibly have worn, and a casual grace that not even Tonks wore well. _The House of Black lives on in that one,_ Mum once said. She wasn't wrong.

"But Charlie, you love Teddy," Percy says. No surprise that he's echoing Charlie's thoughts. Everyone knows by this point how Charlie loves the kid.

For all their gossip, it's funny how they never guessed why. Lucky, maybe, though there's always the chance that they'd ease up on the needling for him to go out and date if they knew. But he doesn't need that space to mourn. Isolation never did much for him. And it has been time enough since the war ended.

He'd still take Teddy with him to Romania if there were a chance it'd work. Or that Andromeda, having latched onto him, would ever let go. She looks at Charlie funny sometimes, like she's waiting for the question. Or the confession. Teddy has her sharp browline, though his softens in laughter much more often than hers does. He's got the Tonks nose, the Lupin jawline, the Black mouth. He talks with his eyebrows like Harry. He runs full speed like Charlie, like the best thing in the world is ahead and there's a Hungarian Horntail nipping at his heels.

"He's right, you know," Hermione says. "You'd be a good dad."

Charlie shrugs, tugging that smile back to his lips and tearing his eyes away from Teddy and his amazing flying gnomes. "I'm raising dragon hatchlings. That's fatherhood enough for me. And once you start studying the mating habits of your typical Ridgeback, you never want to date again."

"You're talking, but all I hear is 'Let me babysit your spawn'," Bill says from the door.

"Charlie took nesting very seriously," Ron replies. Harry snickers.

Charlie shakes his head and stands up slowly, strolls over to where George and Teddy are still looking for remaining gnomes to toss. "How's the exterminating going?" he asks.

George rubs his remaining ear. "I reckon we got most of 'em," he says. "Didn't we, sprog?"

"There's one down here!" Teddy proclaims, pointing down a molehill. "Charlie, you get this one!"

Charlie reaches down and grabs the gnome firmly by two appendages -- not certain which two -- and spins it forcefully in a large loop. Teddy whoops as it goes flying over the tall grass and drops out of sight, and Charlie slings an arm around his shoulders. This is how life goes on, in the end: a boy and his uncle and all the memories of the woman who brought them to each other turned gold with the summer sunset.


End file.
